Oh, so often I go to God thinking so small. As if He gives me only as much as I have earned. I have learned in the past few years the practice of asking big! In my old way of thinking I would ask God in prayer to lift a suffering friend's nose just above the stormy waters for relief. However, now I come boldly before the throne with full confidence that God's grace is more than sufficient for our needs. His supply of grace, mercy, healing, love.... is abundant and endless. I now pray that same prayer with assurance by asking God to pluck them from the stormy waters and walk with them on the glassy sea. Ministering to them as to why they are in a drowning situation. I pray that in God's timing they would have deliverance from what was causing them to drown and that He would bless them abundantly in all ways with maturity in Him. Menial prayers represent a low faith posture. We should not pray with the limits of what we think we deserve to ask for. We should pray the way God told us to pray! Hebrews 4:16, "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace for help in times of need."
More than not we ask God to get us or someone else OUT of a trial. Never considering that God wants to use the pressure of that hard time to turn us from a chunk of coal into a diamond. Under pressure, in pain, being uncomfortable... those are the places of growth and transformation. No one likes to be in those situations. We are humans and we always seek survival, comfort and control. However, those dark places are where God gets our attention. We can fight Him there or we can surrender to His love and let Him transform us. Few ever change because it's a very scary prospect that we will loose control or become overcome with fear when we step out of our comfort zone. That's why we must go boldly before the throne daily and ask God to make those changes with full trust in His love. He wants us to come to Him and trust Him to take our hand and see us through to the other side. When we consider pain we see torment but when God talks of pain He sees healing. It's not a place of punishment, it's a place of grace. Way to often we will not voluntarily go to God for growth because our fear is bigger than our faith. That is why He will change our route or cause a detour in our life so that He can get our attention and work on completing the good work that He began in us. (Philippians 1:6) He loves us way too much to leave us the way we are.
Try it for a week and THINK BIG. Pray bigger prayers, See His love as limitless and kind, filled with purpose and good will. Reach your hand out to Him and ask Him to help you with an area of your life that you want to change. Trust Him to heal you of your past and turn your shame into rejoicing. Pray believing and trust His timing. Faith it till He fulfills it. Pray for Him to use the dark times that you or someone else are going through to recycle you and turn your old into new. Each 24 hour cycle of life has light and darkness in it. So is our walk with the Lord as He always takes us through times of Light and times of darkness. Learn to trust Him BIG, love Him BIG, pray BIG, think BIG and know with full certainty that He is BIG and able. His grace IS sufficient for all our needs. The biggest problem in our fast paced world is impatience. Slow down, meditate on His Word, and come to the realization that God works in His timing not ours. His plans are way bigger than we could ever imagine! His plans are to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future... You will call to him and come and pray to Him and He will listen to you. You will seek Him and you will find Him when you seek Him with all your heart. He will be found by you and He will bring you back from captivity..." (Jeremiah 29:11-14)
Ephesians 3:16-21, "May you grasp how wide and long and deep My love for you is; a love that surpasses knowledge... you cannot ask or imagine the things I am planning for you."
Philippians 1:6, "being confident of this that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
Matthew 7:7-11, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks the door will be opened"
God wants tenacity, faith, belief in His unwavering love and power. Never stop thinking BIG, asking BIG and believing BIG. His good works are as beautiful in the dark as they are in the light.
Psalm 139:12, "even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like day, for darkness is as light to you."
His grace is great enough to meet the great things-
The crashing waves that overwhelm the soul,
The roaring winds that leave us stunned and breathless,
The sudden storms beyond our life's control.
His grace is great enough to meet the small things-
The little pinprick troubles that annoy,
The insect worries, buzzing and persistent,
The squeaking wheels that grate upon our joy.
Annie Johnson Flint
More than not we ask God to get us or someone else OUT of a trial. Never considering that God wants to use the pressure of that hard time to turn us from a chunk of coal into a diamond. Under pressure, in pain, being uncomfortable... those are the places of growth and transformation. No one likes to be in those situations. We are humans and we always seek survival, comfort and control. However, those dark places are where God gets our attention. We can fight Him there or we can surrender to His love and let Him transform us. Few ever change because it's a very scary prospect that we will loose control or become overcome with fear when we step out of our comfort zone. That's why we must go boldly before the throne daily and ask God to make those changes with full trust in His love. He wants us to come to Him and trust Him to take our hand and see us through to the other side. When we consider pain we see torment but when God talks of pain He sees healing. It's not a place of punishment, it's a place of grace. Way to often we will not voluntarily go to God for growth because our fear is bigger than our faith. That is why He will change our route or cause a detour in our life so that He can get our attention and work on completing the good work that He began in us. (Philippians 1:6) He loves us way too much to leave us the way we are.
Try it for a week and THINK BIG. Pray bigger prayers, See His love as limitless and kind, filled with purpose and good will. Reach your hand out to Him and ask Him to help you with an area of your life that you want to change. Trust Him to heal you of your past and turn your shame into rejoicing. Pray believing and trust His timing. Faith it till He fulfills it. Pray for Him to use the dark times that you or someone else are going through to recycle you and turn your old into new. Each 24 hour cycle of life has light and darkness in it. So is our walk with the Lord as He always takes us through times of Light and times of darkness. Learn to trust Him BIG, love Him BIG, pray BIG, think BIG and know with full certainty that He is BIG and able. His grace IS sufficient for all our needs. The biggest problem in our fast paced world is impatience. Slow down, meditate on His Word, and come to the realization that God works in His timing not ours. His plans are way bigger than we could ever imagine! His plans are to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future... You will call to him and come and pray to Him and He will listen to you. You will seek Him and you will find Him when you seek Him with all your heart. He will be found by you and He will bring you back from captivity..." (Jeremiah 29:11-14)
Ephesians 3:16-21, "May you grasp how wide and long and deep My love for you is; a love that surpasses knowledge... you cannot ask or imagine the things I am planning for you."
Philippians 1:6, "being confident of this that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
Matthew 7:7-11, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks the door will be opened"
God wants tenacity, faith, belief in His unwavering love and power. Never stop thinking BIG, asking BIG and believing BIG. His good works are as beautiful in the dark as they are in the light.
Psalm 139:12, "even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like day, for darkness is as light to you."
His grace is great enough to meet the great things-
The crashing waves that overwhelm the soul,
The roaring winds that leave us stunned and breathless,
The sudden storms beyond our life's control.
His grace is great enough to meet the small things-
The little pinprick troubles that annoy,
The insect worries, buzzing and persistent,
The squeaking wheels that grate upon our joy.
Annie Johnson Flint
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